


Homecoming

by emmykay



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 02:11:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1727321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmykay/pseuds/emmykay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is only one Night Fury and only one Hiccup.   Toothless never forgets.  CW: implied death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> Toothless as the best of animal companions.

The Book of Dragons was very old. The entry for the Night Fury was written by an obsessive completionist - someone who had seen and tried desperately to understand what manner of creature could have wreaked that kind of havoc, night after night after terrible night. 

If the completionist had looked into it, they would have determined that the damage happened only in one location on any given night. That is to say, there was only one Night Fury. But the damage happened over such a long period of time, it was reasoned, it couldn't possibly have been committed by a single creature. Then again, every Viking born would have sworn up and down how dangerous and evil dragons were.

Until Hiccup.

Hiccup changed everything. He changed Toothless. And Toothless, in his long, long life, would never forget. Even as Hiccup changed, got taller, heavier, sturdier, then greyer, smaller and lighter, Toothless never forgot his first and best friend.

Even when Hiccup stopped coming to their training meadow. 

That first spring, Toothless sat in the meadow, waiting. Surely, any time now, Hiccup would come. When Toothless became too hungry and the air too cold, he left for warmer climes.

He came back the next spring. And the next. And the next. Other Vikings try to lure him home, and some leave him food, but he doesn’t go with them. 

As civilizations change, as time marches on, legends grew up around his annual appearance. They whisper about the dragon/fire lizard/giant salamander that comes to a certain hidden meadow every spring. A minor religion begins based on that legend. Acolytes spread flowers around the meadow when Toothless is supposed to return. They don’t really know why he comes back, only that he does.

Someone tries to capture Toothless. The acolytes make sure that person will never return.

Toothless doesn’t really notice the people or the changes of the trees. He figures he just needs to wait, and he does. Year after year, he returns, homing in on the location of the place he met his friend, first heard his voice, first looked into his eyes. 

He just keeps coming back. Until one year, he doesn’t. 

Long after, the meadow remains. Because of rumors, superstitions, because of a nameless soaring feeling that comes to visitors, sometimes sad, sometimes happy, but mostly a mixture of both when they come into the area. The place is sacred now, sanctified and protected by patience and faith and love.


End file.
